


Bad Luck Anonymous

by Volrosso



Series: Like a Crowbar to the Brain EP [2]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album)
Genre: Multi, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 12:46:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6079818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Volrosso/pseuds/Volrosso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You wanna do this? Fine, we'll do this." Ray let out a bitter laugh, pushing his hand through his hair. "Hi, I'm Ray, and my life is a Greek-fuckin'-Tragedy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Luck Anonymous

**Author's Note:**

> These don't have to be read in any particular order tbh I just realized that 
> 
> Anyways. I'm gonna do the Party Poison one next probably. Update regularly when I'm done with the first parts for all of them.

 

The office was too small. It was like a tiny torture box with stupid motivational posters on the walls and not much else. A desk, occupied by someone who might very well be the evil enchantress out of a fairy tale. A chair, occupied by her mildly annoyed patient. 

“How are you feeling, R-A001?” This therapist smiled too much and her lipstick was too red. It would probably give Ray a headache if he could get those. And she pronounced all the zeroes in his name. Ray hated it when people did that, they could just call him One and be done with it.

Or you know, they could always use the name he’d actually _specifically_ asked to be called. Weren’t therapists supposed to listen to their patients? Sure, individualism was never a good thing. That was drilled into them upon entry into the force. But if all his coworkers were afforded the courtesy of first names, Ray would like to have one too.

Besides, Ray was a nice name. He’d picked it himself, and he liked it, and it was a hell of a lot nicer than a random jumble of letters and numbers.  

So already, this therapist was a dud. Scary blue eyes and professional updo/whitecoat x2 intimidation combo. She was someone Penny might call an _Ice Queen_. Ray wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but Penny was usually right about these things. 

To top things off, the Ice Queen Therapist had opened with a loaded question that Ray didn’t know how to answer. Therapy sessions were like navigating through hostage situations. Harder, even. Ray was trained to navigate hostage situations, it was covered in the training. They never taught you anything about dealing with nosy therapists in training. Ray thought they really ought to.

Telling the truth would mean more tests, and that was the best case scenario. It could spell another round trip to the hospital, even. A prolonged stay in one of the facilities he’d been carted around to these past few years. Saying he wasn't doing all that great could spell trouble, and Ray didn't appreciate trouble at all.

Ice Queen Therapist didn’t look trustworthy either. Penny had warned Ray not to say anything to therapists who seemed too friendly. She was always reminding Ray that it was them against the system and that they could only trust each other. Sure, Penny was super paranoid about everything, but she’d never led him astray.  

So Ray lied.

“I’m just _fine_.”

It was obvious the Ice Queen didn’t really care when she just smiled for the ninth time and nodded instead of raising an eyebrow and asking why he was sent in on a day that wasn’t mandatory. It meant, at least, that Ray didn’t have to have to explain that incident with the blaster. It wasn’t his fault, why could’t anyone see that?

He watched her as she rounded her desk, leaning up against it. She was going with the good cop routine. Typical. “Are you adjusting well? No points of concern to address?”

Like he was about to tell her _anything_. Ray leaned back in his chair and tried not to look too defiant when he crossed his arms over his chest. “Under my unique circumstances, doctor, I’d say I’m doing better than most.”

Ice Queen's smile twitched. Ray raised his eyebrows and she looked down, at her clipboard. “Work is going well?”

“Work isn’t going anywhere,” Ray said dryly, finding sudden interest in the posters on the wall telling him to _Keep Smiling!_ and to _Have a Better Day!_ “But it’s nice that I don’t have to sit in an office all day anymore.”

“You prefer driving around the city, then?”

Ray shrugged. She was probably going to link his answer to some symptom or side effect if he gave a proper answer.  

Ice Queen was writing notes anyways. Ray wanted to toss himself out the window. Everyone in this establishment had a clipboard attached to their person at all times. It made him feel like an animal, having everyone studying his behavior all the time.“And your… _Episodes_ have subsided?”

Episodes. That was cute. Ray forced a smile and nodded.  

Ray played them off like they weren't a big deal in therapy sessions, smiling and brushing off questions about them with a wave of his hand. He could deal with them for now, until he found someone he could trust to help him with them.  

They were scary, actually. Getting scarier. Ray had one almost every day, some worse than others- weird daydreams about places he’d never been and people he’d never seen. They felt so real sometimes, like Ray was stuck in a moment. The urge to listen to loud music- banned music full of guitars and screaming and meaning- that was getting hard to control too.

It had been a bad idea to bring that stuff up around the people around here, they latched onto it and now Ray got no peace. Mandatory therapy three times a week, constant check ins and tests.  

If he said anything more than what he’d disclosed about the music, Ray would get fired, or worse. At least he had it under control for now. At least nobody had caught on yet. At least he was still around, unlike everyone else in the program outside of Penny. At least, at least, at least. It was becoming a common phrase in Ray’s vocabulary. He was getting good at being just okay with things and moving on with his life.  

These situations would all be fine if he could take pills like every other person in the city. It would stop the longing for music he’d never been exposed to- places he’d never been. It might even fix the sense of unease and discomfort he got every time he looked in the mirror.

Alas, Ray had to suffer on his own.

Ice Queen sensed that she had lost his attention and cleared her throat. “Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?”

There was a part of Ray that wanted to snap at her or say something completely out of control. Tell her to go to hell, tell her he wasn't going to come back no matter what. Maybe he'd even swear.

Instead, Ray did nothing, he just smiled and said no, he’d just like to go back to work. Anything to get out of here. Work was boring, but at least he got to see Penny and nobody was asking him hard questions.  

Walking out of the office always made Ray feel super isolated. Isolated enough that it was something he had to prepare for mentally. It had everything to do with the fact that none of the people in this building could hide the fact that they were fascinated by him. They couldn't control themselves, couldn't stop looking at him like a science project.

He paused before leaving the office, making polite small talk with the Ice Woman. A difficult endeavor, he had to try to avoid suspicious topics and talk through the elastic in his mouth. She said she thought he was funny and hoped to see him again soon, as if he had any choice in the matter. They parted ways.

Ray tied his hair up, squared his shoulders, and he walked. 

Ray towered over everyone in there, met every stare with a polite smile that was returned before the other person looked away.

To hell with them all, Penny would say, throwing her arms up in the air. Ray agreed.  

Therapy took up way too much time that he could be using to do other things. Not that Ray had much else to do at home but sit and wait to go to work or therapy, but he liked being home. Sure, he knew he was almost always being watched, but it was quiet in there at least. Nobody was scrutinizing him face to face.

And the book he was reading right now was getting good.  

Ray headed straight to work. A seven block walk with headphones full of static wasn’t too bad. A seven block walk in the rain was a little worse because the wet wreaked havoc on Ray's hair, but what could be done.

The risk of running into weird people was higher around this hour, around the time when curfew started and everyone was rushing to get home. It wasn't dangerous, however. It was Ray's job to keep people safe, and he took it seriously. There usually wasn't too much trouble, just a lot of nutjobs milling about.

A group of colourful droids crossed the street to avoid him as he walked by, ducking their heads to snicker among themselves. Maybe they recognized him? The thought made him sort of nervous. 

Ray pushed his headphones down around his neck and glared at them as they disappeared around a corner. Generally such emotional reactions were meant to be beneath him. Or at least that was what Scarecrows were meant to believe. Ray wouldn’t know. He and Penny had skipped the emotional conditioning part of the training.   

“They don’t know,” someone said, a one legged droid leaning up against the wall in the mouth of an alley. That wasn't unusual for this area, Ray got broken down bots trying to talk to him around here all the time. His eyes were glowing, distracting enough that it took Ray a moment to realize he was the one being addressed. The droid was a very old issue, broken down, synthetic skin peeling away and revealing metal and wires and rust. 

Ray couldn’t look at him longer than a moment. He felt sick, fixing his eyes elsewhere quickly. The way the droid was twitching suggested he was haywire- really, that was the only reason any civilian unit would have to talk to Ray. “They don’t know you’re blessed. Forgive them.”

“I don’t feel blessed,” Ray snapped, hurrying along his way.

“She is watching over you,” the droid said, voice rising as Ray got further and further away. “The witch is with you!”  

He was out of earshot before Ray started wanting to go back and write him up for harassment.

A witch. That was a new one. Last time it was a gap toothed, blank eyed human grabbing him by the front of his jacket and telling him over and over that he would be reborn in the Destroya before Penny threatened to shoot him unless he let go. The time before that he'd been told he was going to save the world by a man who had stormed into the building with a girl in Ray's program, a gun pressed to her head. They shot him. There was a lot of blood. 

It wasn't something Ray liked thinking about all that much. Not the horrible things he saw doing his job, and not the outlandish possibility that he could be anything special.

A few civilians that are out way too late- really, it was almost curfew for humans at that point- sped past him. They avoided Ray. They didn’t even look at him, ducking their heads as he walked by.

Whatever.

Ray knew it was going to be a long night when he didn’t even have time to settle himself upon arrival. No sooner has he entered the stark white lobby of the building then Penny was latched on his arm. She turned him around at the doors. 

“Anomaly on the outskirts,  _amigo_ ,” she said cheerfully, patting his arm with her free hand. “Ollie outtie. C’mon. You’re way late already.” 

“I had- It’s not our job to investigate anomalies,” Ray said as he was shoved out the door. Penny was about half his size but it didn’t matter, she was determined and very, very strong.

“It is now,” Penny replied, like that made everything okay. “ _On y va_ , buddy boy.  _Vamos!_  Let’s do this.”

Penny was what some might call  _determined_. Ray called it  _annoying_.

Penny was always trying to prove herself and climb up in the ranks, dragging Ray with her. He supposed he should be thanking her, since she was the reason he wasn’t stuck with his previous partner. The guy was always talking down to him and getting them both in trouble. Penny got them in trouble, but it was fun sometimes, even Ray had to admit that. She was also the one who got them both out of the traffic sector, out of the offices.

Okay, so Ray owed everything to Penny. Fine. He loved her to death and she made everyday life interesting. 

Ray had little to no ambition, he liked to stay under the radar, and Penny was too brave, too out there. He kept her in check and she threw him out of his comfort zone. She was tiny, Ray was like a wall. They complimented each other perfectly. Penny was his best and only friend. 

If that wasn’t enough, Penny was like him. They were from the same program; he could trust her.

“Am I talking to a wall, Number One? Might as well be. Come on now.” Ray got in the car before she started bullying him, which was usually what happened once Penny had an idea in her head and Ray wasn’t being as complacent as she needed him to be. 

“So what exactly is this anomaly,” Ray asked, though he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know. If Penny wanted to skip out on duty to go check it out it must be pretty scary. Maybe the sky was falling? It had happened before. 

Penny just hummed and fixed her hair into twin braids in the side mirror as Ray flicked on the radio, starting the car up. “Rogue droid? Lost dog? What are we dealing with here?”

“Don’t quote me on this,” Penny said, giving herself one last once over before pulling her mask down over her face. “But I think it’s an honest to god Killjoy.”

“A  _Killjoy?_ ” Maybe Ray’s voice squeaked a little, so what. He was torn between stopping the car and getting out immediately and asking Penny nervously to maybe, you know,  _not_  bring that stuff up in here. They weren’t allowed to talk about Killjoys. Killjoys was a slang term anyways. They were just Rebels. Terrorists. Nobody called them  _Killjoys_.

“You wanna get driving, buddy?” It was a challenge more than it was a question. A dare for Ray to tell her he wanted out. Which he would, if he was physically capable of letting Penny down. 

He drove to appease Penny, who kept looking over at him like he was going to freak out at the drop of a dime. The streets and neon lights blurred by and Ray’s grip on the steering wheel tightened again as he counted to ten over and over again in his head to keep calm. An honest to god terrorist from the desert. He was nowhere near ready to face that.  

“What’s on your mind, kiddo? You short circuiting or what? You look a little frazzled.” Penny laughed when Ray made some sort of nervous sound he hadn’t been sure he was capable of before this moment.  

“I wish you wouldn’t bring…  _them_  up.” Ray couldn’t even say the name. Penny just shrugged, settling back in her seat.

“No use fighting your identity, Raymond.” She kicked her feet up on the dash. Ray was too busy freaking out to be annoyed. “When you think about it, the only difference between us and them are our own questionable morals. They run around and shoot shit in masks. What is it we’re doing?”

“Keeping the peace,” Ray said, exasperated. “They’re terrorists. Nothing more.”

Penny drummed her fingers against the window. “Now, come on, you don’t believe that.”

She was right. This was exactly the reason Ray didn’t think about _them_ if he could help it. If he came to terms with the nagging suspicion that what he was doing was wrong, it wouldn’t end well. He almost asked if Penny felt the same, but knowing wouldn’t help anything. Might just make it worse.

At the first sign of graffiti on the walls, Ray was on high alert. He hated coming to this part of the city- sure, he was big and intimidating and he had a gun he could use at least decently. The proximity to the edge of the dome scared him, though. Made him feel things.

Penny, however, obviously did not share his concerns, and was hell bent on short circuiting Ray’s brain at all costs. She opened the door and hopped out while the vehicle was still in motion.

Ray slammed on the brakes, cursing, but Penny was already running off so he might as well just stay here. 

Penny was going to be the death of him. They may be more indestructible than most of the other people on the force, but that didn’t mean they should be jumping out of cars.

The sound of sirens from other patrols coming in started droning faintly off in the distance. Now Ray knew that Penny was getting them in trouble just so she could… what was it she said they were doing this for? Glory? Something like that. She wanted glory. She picked glory over not getting fired. 

Ray leaned over and pulled Penny’s door closed, flicking the radio off so he could sit in silence. A group of individuals stumbled out past the car, a ‘crow with a porno droid on each arm. They didn’t even seem to pick up on the fact that Ray was there, laughing loudly as they went. 

Time ticked by. Nobody else came.

The car felt stifling. The silence was way too loud, but the static would be even worse and Ray just couldn’t take it.

Ray got out when he heard yelling, his head going foggy the second he got the door closed again, dizzy with the feeling he got just before a particularly intense Capital-E-Episode. His body felt much too light, like he was hardly tethered to it at all, like he might fall down and float away if he so much as moved a muscle. 

The screaming was getting more and more intense now. Ray could probably make out the words if he wanted to. At the moment all he cared about was getting Penny and leaving immediately. There was something so familiar about the pictures on the walls around him, bright splashes of colour- a sunset, he realized. He’d never seen one like that before, they didn’t happen under the dome.

A  _sunset_. Like, a real and natural sunset. High up on the wall, faded, marred by other, less significant writings and symbols. Extra vibrant pinks and oranges and shades of blue at the edges trailing off into the plain brick.

The pavement around him blurred and shifted, signalling the beginning of the hardcore hallucination bit of the Episode.

The colours lit up brighter, drowning out everything else in his field of vision with sunlight. Ray could feel it on his face, warm and comforting, new and all too familiar all at once. The smell of burning rubber and gasoline was drowned in the breeze. Civilization fell away.

Ray walked away from the car- a terrible idea, sure, he wasn’t sure where his legs were taking him but he was on his way. The ground beneath his feet was uneven and dusty, cracked in places, dry and barren. He could see something off in the distance but it was too bright to see properly, even when he shielded his eyes.

There were people at the edges of his vision. They were little more than smudges of colour slowly coming back into focus, unimportant and insignificant. They breezed by him like he was invisible, faces morphing into people who were achingly familiar. They were saying things, but their voices were garbled and melodic and making no sense at all. 

This was definitely one of the worst Episodes he'd had. Ray wasn’t sure where he was, where he was supposed to bem what his brain was trying to tell him by doing this. He didn’t know the man with the bandanna tied around his head in front of him, smiling and laughing like they’d known each other forever.

The trance was broken by someone slamming hard into Ray’s chest. His brain whirred back into action but he wasn’t sure what that action called for. It wasn't an assault, just a careless civilian. Running real fast away from something, by the looks of it. Nothing suspicious about that. 

Ray's assailant was sprawled out on the still-shifting ground, obviously high as a surveillance drone with the way his pupils were blown, eyes wide and scared.

Was he a rebel? Looking like that, he could be a rebel. Though rebels tended to keep more covered up and- well, this person wasn't wearing too much of anything. And his face- was it even possible to do makeup like that? Ray was in awe.

He also didn’t know what to do. If he wasn’t in the middle of an Episode he would know how to deal with this, but unfortunately that was not the case. This had never happened on the job before- god, how unprofessional. On some level of awareness, Ray knew he was just standing there staring down at this tiny, pretty person, and that might be weird. His body wasn’t responding as it should be. This wasn't his fault. 

They stayed where they were before the possible rebel apologized quickly and scrambled to his feet. He started running, then, and Ray watched him go because it was something to focus on that wasn’t the buildings around him that kept popping in and out of existence.

The Episode faded away as the guy disappeared from sight. Ray didn’t get too much recovery time, however.

He was puzzling through everything that just happened when Penny reappeared. She wasn't alone. She had a man with her, one that towered over her, dressed up in a dark green leather jacket and too tight jeans and dark sunglasses. None of that was dress code appropriate. Not to mention, he was human and his hair was  _blue_.

So this was what a Killjoy looked like. It was odd to have a face for everything they were fighting against, finally. Somehow, this really wasn't what Ray had been picturing a terrorist would look like. Maybe he was expecting someone taller. Someone scarier. Someone who didn't look like they were fresh out of school. 

Penny was beaming from ear to ear and the guy looked more inconvenienced than anything. 

“Hold him, would you?” And Penny just pushed the guy towards Ray before bounding off again without another word. Ray sputtered and scrambled and managed to grab the guy by the back of the shirt before he ran, pulling him into a headlock. It was instinct, but now he was even more anxious. There was a _terrorist_. In his _arms_. He was tiny and easily manageable but god, this was not an experience Ray particularly wanted to be a part of.

“Holy Hannah, would you let up? I’m only human,” the guy snapped, and Ray let him go without thinking. This resulted in another mad scramble- jeez, Penny couldn’t have bothered to cuff him or something beforehand?

Ray didn’t like the whole theatrical _slam them down on the hood of the car and yell_ thing. And maybe that was why people didn’t take him seriously, but he really didn’t have it in him to be ruthless. He held the man there in an awkward hug, keeping his arms trapped at his sides while he tried to figure out what he should do.

The guy only wiggled a little bit. “I’d love to see the bastard that dreamed you up, honestly,” he said, and Ray had no idea what that was supposed to mean but it was probably an insult. “Do they even train their grunts anymore? How are we losing to you losers?”

Ray wanted to say something about the fact that he could probably crush the rebel’s tiny insignificant form right now without too much trouble. He didn’t. He was going to wait for Penny another five minutes and then he was going to call this in. Reinforcements shouldn’t be too far anyways, the sirens were still off in the distance somewhere. 

“Alright officer, what’s it gonna cost me to get out of this?” He looked up, and Ray looked away quickly, cursing himself for letting curiosity get the best of him. He was just so fascinated by the guy's hair. Was that so unusual? “You want my jacket? Lock of my hair? I’d give you my gun but it seems some other rat got to it first. Inconvenient, I know.”

“You can’t bribe me,” Ray snapped. Or, he tried to snap. His voice squeaked and he hated it.

“No offense but you’re like the least intimidating person I’ve met. And I work with a girl who’s about four foot nothing and dressed like a monkey half the time.” Ray had no idea how to respond to that. He didn’t have to, blue haired guy rattled on. “And I’m not smart enough to actually have any info your people want. I just play music.”

“Music,” Ray echoed curiously. _Rebel music_. He loved it, was the thing. Ray really loved it.

“You like it? Real music, man, not the shit they pass off for music around here. I’ve heard it. It’s awful.”

“Yeah,” Ray said without thinking. Bad move. Bad bad move. Now blue haired guy was grinning at him.

“You’re not a very good ‘crow, are you?”

Okay, maybe he wasn't. Maybe he never had been. That wasn't for some random terrorist from the desert to know. Ray set his jaw and fixed this situation the only way he knew how. He overpowered the blue haired guy and shoved him in the back of the car before getting in the front himself. That was that.

Rebel banged against the partition, tried the doors a couple times before realizing he wasn't going to be able to worm his way out of this. His demeanor had changed drastically. He didn’t look cocky and sure anymore. He looked like a caged animal, wild and alarmed with his hair falling into his face and his sunglasses askew.

“Please,” was what he said, and Ray tightened his grip on the steering wheel. God, why did Penny leave him in these situations? “Please, I don’t want to be one of them.”

“Tough shit,” Ray growled, and his voice stayed steady and he was fine.

“You’re not like them; I can tell that. I don’t know what it is.” Rebel leaned forward far as he could, face nearly pressed against the glass of the partition. Ray realized that he had given some sign he didn’t really understand to this rebel, that there was a link between them he couldn’t quite puzzle out.

It was scary. This was so far out of his element. 

“You’re no zombie. You don’t buy into what they tell you. You don't have to turn me in. Drive me to the border and let me go, I can’t fight back. I’m helpless here, _amigo_ , my hands are tied.” Rebel clasped his hands in front of him, giving Ray what was probably his best puppy dog face, bottom lip pouted out and everything. 

Instead of paying him any mind, Ray flicked on the radio and reported that he’d found the anomaly. The rebel went quiet. He didn’t look scared, he was staring Ray down in the rear view mirror and his eyes were strange and mismatched and intense. So much so that Ray almost missed it when the radio flared to life and the voice of his higher up cut through the static.

“You can’t take care of this yourself?” She sounded condescending, as everyone did when they were talking to Penny and Ray. Ray was too stressed to deal with this. He’d snap if he was braver, god, he _wished_ he was braver. It had been a night, he was running low on energy and he didn’t want to do this. This was almost grounds to start learning to say no to Penny. 

“I’d rather not, miss,” was his quick response. That was his nature. No snapping, no witty remarks, just blind obedience like they’d been taught. Penny usually dealt with it. But seeing as she was a bit out of order at the moment, Ray would use his best judgement to keep from getting in too much trouble.

This job was important too, Ray wasn’t about to let a blue haired rebel punk mess that up. He could stay in the city at this rank, which was important. The desert scared him since the Capital-E-Episodes had started.

“You’re not like them,” the guy whispered too low for the radio buzzing in Ray’s hand to pick up. “You don’t have to listen to them.”

And he was right. Ray didn’t have to. But he did, because that was the way things were. Brave people like Penny rebelled, they started storms and wars and revolutions, and people like Ray followed behind their opposition, sweeping up the pieces. That was just fine with him. 

It didn’t matter in a moment anyways, Penny slid into the passenger’s side, pulling her mask off. “You call that off, Raymond. You call that off right now.” 

He doesn’t say anything. Penny gave him a hard look and snatched the radio away.

“Update on the situation. Agent 42-S59 here, and I’m not a ridiculous pissbaby, so I’m gonna handle it.” She pushed her hair behind her ear. It was sort of wild, escaping from the braids. She had mud streaked up the front of her uniform- what kind of stuff had she been up to out there?  

Rebel gawked from the back seat, unable to believe his luck. Ray felt out of place. Penny never talked like that to him, and he hated it. Penny should know better.

They sat in silence, waiting for the reply. Penny looked moody and dangerous in a way that was not familiar. The rebel was grinning brightly at Ray in the rear view mirror. Ray wished he would stop. He was absolutely unable to sort out the muddled emotion in his head, definitely not equipped to handle this much at once.

“Roger that. You’re clear to proceed,” the radio crowed, and Penny cut her eyes at Ray again.  

“Drive,” Penny growled, and he nodded.

And just like that, Ray was sure he’d ruined his entire life.

“I told you you’re better than them.” Blue haired guy must've assumed that Ray was capable of putting up any sort of fight against Penny. In a battle of wills, she would win every single time, even though this is the sort of thing that could literally get them killed if it got out. Penny seemed determined though, and Ray didn’t want to ask.  

Ray wanted to know what made them better than their hardworking peers for sparing the life of a terrorist from the desert they’d known for about half an hour. Like, the guy wasn't even nice. At all. He was cocky and annoying and Ray sort of wanted to punch him in the nose. He didn’t though. And he said none of those things. 

He made some sort of nervous sound and started driving towards the border.

“You don’t have to stay here, you know.” The rebel was very opposed to silence. Unfortunate, as the silence would have been welcomed with open arms. Silence was what Penny and Ray worked with when they fought. They ignored each other. They didn't talk. 

Ray didn't want to talk. He was busy counting the streetlamps as they blurred past them, trying not to scream and freak and turn around any time another patrol went by.

“We really don’t,” Penny said in a tone that made it very clear that she’d thought about this. 

“We can’t leave the city,” he choked out, and when he looked over at Penny for her commentary she was leaning her forehead against the window, ignoring everyone else in the car.

“And who told you that?” Rebel tilted his head to the side. “What’s your name. Do you have one? Do they let you keep it when you become a Scarecrow?”

“I’m not a Scarecrow- not really,” Ray grumbled. “Neither of us are. We can’t go through the training.”

“Why?”

Damn it. “I- We… we don’t respond well to drugs. It’s part of the training, so we can’t go though it. we can’t be Scarecrows.”

“Why are you so ashamed of what you are,” Penny snapped at him, and Ray ducked his head. What had gotten into her? “You should be proud.”

“Name,” Rebel prompted when it was obvious that Ray was stuck on what to say. This was ridiculous. He knew Penny fought who she was just as much as he did. They had lengthy conversations about all the things they'd do if they were like everyone else. If they were normal. If Penny was having a sudden change of heart, there was a very good reason.

“Ray.”

“Mine’s Pit Viper, if you care.” And then. “Your friend’s a lot chattier than you, Ray.”

Ray hummed, refocusing on driving. Not long to the border, he still had time to turn back. Penny probably wouldn’t forgive him, but he could do it. Take matters into his own hands for once. Get rewarded for his obedience. 

He didn't.

“We belong out there, Ray,” was what Penny said to him. She was gripping his arm now, which was distracting him. Ray just wanted to drive. Get this over with. Why was everyone bugging him. 

Penny was going to trigger another Episode with this behavior, and then Ray would be up all night avoiding dreams of sun and sand and friends he’d never met in places he’s never been. Well, if he even made it back from this  

Instead of voicing his complaints and opinions, Ray just nodded. Penny was right about everything, after all. She rubbed his shoulder soothingly.

“You could come with us,” Viper said softly. He looked so perfectly human in the moment, so detached from the evil caricatures of violent rebels from the desert Ray kept up in his mind to keep from getting too attached to the familiar strangers filling up his memories. “To the desert.”

“You’re too trusting of people,” Ray said, ignoring the use of _us_. He didn’t want to think about the desert. The desert should be avoided. 

“You’re too nice not to trust,” Penny said. Ray would argue, but he just spent an entire night obeying Penny's orders like a chump because the idea of making his only friend upset was much scarier than anything the boss can dole out. 

Whatever, the were almost done anyways. 

He knew which of the exits was the least enforced, and that was where they went. Dracs were littered about the gaping mouth of the tunnel that lead out into the chaotic world of Zone 1, somewhere Ray had never really been and had no particular desire to be.

There were no Scarecrows around. Dracs without Scarecrows were next to useless. Really, Dracs were the only people who could possibly be treated worse than Ray and Penny were. Mindless drones. 

Ray kept driving, past the guards who were too busy chasing away porno droids and curious kids from the tunnel to care about one of their own vehicles. If Ray got in some trouble he could pin it on their unprofessionalism. It would be horrible of him to do that, but he would.

Ray was in this now. It was almost like an adventure! Or something like that. This was the something wild he'd always wanted to do. Something bold and wild. Something he could exchange conspitayorial looks with Penny over for weeks to come, if they made it. 

Positives existed. Ray was going to see the real sky. The risk of doing this was definitely worth that. 

Lights of the tunnel streaked across Penny’s face. She looked intense in a way that Penny never should. Ray would ask what she was thinking about if there wasn’t an overly curious guy they didn’t even know in the back. 

Penny looked over at him and gave him a smile that reassured him that yeah, they were okay for right now. Ray trusted her, despite all of this. He probably always would.   

Which was what scared him. "You're not going right," he asked Penny. 

She laughed at that, in the way she did, throwing her head back. "And leave you behind? Fat chance, buddy." That was fine. "Not to say that I won't down the line, you know? Once we figure this stuff out? I know there's a reason we need to be out there."

“Speak for yourself," Ray grumbled. 

“Come on, number One, you know it’d be cool to be out there!” She punched his arm, giggling. “You know you want tooooo.”

He didn’t respond- didn't get to. They were hit with a bright flash of light that was almost disorienting as they drove on out into Zone 1. Ray slammed down the brakes too fast and they all jerk forward, Viper smacking into the partition and groaning.

“Shit,” Penny said.

“Yeah,” Ray agreed. He didn’t want to get out. Penny did instead, going around the back to fetch Viper.

“It’s been a slice, friend,” Viper said as he was escorted out of the car. “Feel free to come say hi if you ever find yourself out my way.”

Ray didn’t suppose he’d do that. He probably wouldn't miss Viper much at all. He was more concerned with the sky out here anyways. It was clear and cloudless- nothing like the storm they'd suffered through under the dorm just hours ago. 

There were stars everywhere, more than they ever put up in the sky under the dome. They’re all clustered together. Under the dome they were sparse and scattered, few and far between. The sky that was visible from beyond the windshield seemed to go on and on forever. It didn’t curve over, just stretched on further than Ray could see. There was something amazing about that. The world seemed so much bigger.

Penny got back in after what felt like an hour and they just sat there, looking up.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it,” she said.

“Sure is.” Ray smiled.

“Don’t get too used to it, _amigo_.”  

Momentary silence.

Ray tore his eyes away from the inky blackness above them, looking over at his friend. “You don’t actually think people live out there do you? Past Zone 1?”

Penny shrugged. “If we keep going the way we are we might get to find out for ourselves.”

Ray wasn’t happy with that.

“You ready to go home? I feel bad for dragging you all over the city.”

“Hey,” Ray said as he started the car up again. “If it’s for glory, it doesn’t matter.”

“For glory,” Penny said with a grin, punching the air. 


End file.
